At last a little urchin said,
“Please ma’am I’d take my oath,
’At master John was neutral,
And stuck up for them both.”
“Stuck up for both, offended both,—
Yes that is what you mean?”
Continued Madame Europe,
Then spoke to John again:
“Now I’ll tell you what it is, John,
We’ve long watch’d your career,
You take your fags’ advice to save
Your paltry sums a year.
“There’s Bob and Bill, besides some more,
That I call naught but scums,
They’ve got you fairly in between
Their fingers and their thumbs.
“If such like men as Ben and Hugh
This day your fags had been,
They would have saved both you and me
This curs’d disgraceful scene.
“Instead of bein’ half-clad and shod,
As everybody knows,
You would have dared these rivals now
To come to such like blows.
“There was a time in this house, John,
If you put up your thumb,
The greatest blackguard tongue would stop
As if they had been dumb.
“But not a one in this here house
This moment cares a fig
For all you say or all you do,
Although your purse be big.”
“I couldn’t hurt poor Louis, ma’am,
Although he did begin;
And then you see that Will and I
Are very near akin.
“Beside, you see,” said John again,
“I let poor Louis sup;
On both I use my ointment, and
Their wounds I did bind up.